Neil A. Fry, Arsenal Audit
“This team will win the championship with one or two good buys.”
Arsène Wenger, after the FA Cup Final May 2017 on this season’s Team of Men
Having had his 20th anniversary at Arsenal, the excellent FA Cup win over Champions Chelsea would have been a good time for Monsieur Wenger to finally bow out, after so many lows last season, on something of a high and with some dignity still intact. Unfortunately, having managed to fly over for the Cup Final, Arsenal’s absentee American major shareholder and de facto owner promptly, privately, decided Monsieur Wenger was to remain as his fund-manager – having just confirmed that KSE UK Inc was a “committed long-term investor in Arsenal”. Little did we know the real trophy hunt Stan Kroenke had in his sights. The Arsenal Board dutifully rubber-stamped the decision, and ‘Silent Stan’ flew back to his $725 million 800-square-miles Texas ranch. There was no tricky press conference or one of those fan forums that so irritate Monsieur Wenger. Rather, Arsenal Player went into overdrive. Having proclaimed himself a “catalyst for change” in April, Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis now gushed, “Arsène is somebody I have worked with for over eight years now, and I know the quality of the man, I know the quality of him as a football person and I know the quality of him as a human being as well”. He remained unshakeable in his belief that Wenger was the right man for the job “to put this club in a position where we are winning the Premier League, where we are competing to win in Europe and pushing forward.”
Arsenal Audit does not agree. Even with two good buys, which Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette appear to be. Arsenal’s Audit didn’t judge Arsenal’s prospects on the first match of last season, the opening 3 – 4 home defeat by Liverpool, which eventually proved to rob Monsieur Wenger of his previously much cherished fourth-place ‘trophy’. Or the final match of the season or last weekend’s Community Shield season precursor (a poor predictor of season-long league outcomes). Rather as ever, it takes a longer-term view and the extent of the ongoing failures once the Invincibles squad was dissembled by Monsieur Wenger. Since the first Audit in 2011, yet again, the evidence suggests that massively insufficient progress has continued to be made to keep pace with key rivals, now all managed by elite-level managers.
In a three-part Arsenal Audit Final Edition we first revisit the three distinct phases of team building post-Invincibles including that for the new season. In Part 2 we look at the supporting operational structures and the dichotomy between Monsieur Wenger’s long-serving loyal and obedient, but ineffective, coaching staff and fresher more positive developments away from his immediate control. Finally, in Part 3, we examine the prospects of Monsieur Wenger winning the Premier League for the first time in 14 years and to make good on Arsenal’s ever-optimistic Chief Executive Officer’s indefatigable aspirational promises. Suffice to say, it’s goodbye from Arsenal Audit to Monsieur Wenger’s Arsènal - a grossly underachieving football club that has been sold out to become a mere investment fund for an already obscenely rich American cowboy - and au revoir to the once great Arsenal Football Club.
Project Youth
“I told the shareholders we have to trust this team. Everything is based on my own conviction… If in two years I don't have any success, it will be my fault. It is a bet I made.”
Arsène Wenger, October 2009 on Project Youth
Despite the sale of Thierry Henry, Arsenal mounted a title challenge in the 2007 - 2008 season and were five points clear at the top with 12 games to go before the first of three major title challenge implosions. Whilst ending up in 3rd place, they did finish only four points behind the Champions (Manchester United). The following season was Alex Song, Abou Diaby and Denilson’s breakthrough season as regular starters (having been signed in 2006). With Jens Lehmann and Gilberto having left pre-season, only Kolo Touré was left of the Invincibles. Nevertheless, the little known young trio personified Project Youth which Monsieur Wenger believed would keep Arsenal competing at the highest level during the height of the new stadium build debt repayments. The Club had been far from transparent over the implications of the stadium debt on transfer policy, trophy outcomes and supporter pricing.
Arsenal’s finished in 4th place in the 2008 – 2009 season, 18 points behind the Champions. In 2009 criticism of the manager was relatively rare, but not all supporters shared his trust in the team. The following summer he was urged to add experience and steel to midfield, by signing a very well respected Spanish midfielder/ defensive midfielder but famously retorted, "I have been criticised for not hiring Xabi Alonso... I would have killed Song, Diaby and Denilson”. Far from arriving in the promised two years, tangible trophy success had to wait nearly five years until the 2014 FA Cup Final. By then Denilson had returned to Sao Paulo in 2011, Alex had been sold for a song to Barcelona in 2012, and Diaby’s woeful, but very well remunerated, injury problems grew ever worse. Diaby has amassed just six appearances in two seasons for his new club Marseille. Denilson is believed to be playing for Cruzeiro in his homeland, Song for FC Rubin Kazan in Russia. In terms of major honours the trio won one: as a squad player starting 20 matches, Song won a league title with Barcelona. Having helped to humiliate Arsenal 10-2, Bayern’s Xabi Alonso is now enjoying his retirement. He won the FA Cup and Champions League with Liverpool, before Monsieur Wenger declined to sign him. Since: the Spanish and German Leagues four times, their domestic cups three times, the Champions League again, the European Championship twice and the World Cup.
The British Core
“We are delighted that these five young players have all signed new long-term contracts. The plan is to build a team around a strong basis of young players, in order to get them to develop their talent at the Club.”
Arsène Wenger, December 2012 on the British core of Gibbs, Jenkinson Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey and Wilshere signing new contracts.
In 2005 Monsieur Wenger fielded the first English top flight match day squad without a single player from the U.K. Chastened by foreign players leaving the Club for greater trophy success and salaries elsewhere, he assembled a British core and, in December 2012, tied them down to long term contracts. The hope was that they would become the loyal and successful future of the Club.
In the first part of last season a rejuvenated Theo Walcott basked in match interviews over his goals, tracking back and defensive work from the right wing. Critics said it wouldn’t last. After he failed in his defensive duties and allowed Everton’s equalizer just before half-time in December, like Arsenal’s season, his form duly gradually started to unravel. He appears to be spatially unsuited to playing alongside wing-backs and started only the Leicester match, in April, in the new formation. He has still only started 25 Premier League matches in a season once (2011 - 12). His finally tally was 10 Premier League goals (19 in all competitions) and two assists. Despite the unavailability of Alexis and Ozil for the Community Shield, his long run on the bench continued.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has also struggled to realise his potential; but proved the best of the British Core last season and, arguably, Arsenal’s best player during the difficult second half – despite being shunted from right-wing to centre-midfield to right, and finally left wing-back. His missing of the last four matches through injury robbed him of the chance of improving on his most ever Premier League starts, 17 in the 2014 - 15 season. Nevertheless, he made his most ever starts and appearances in all competitions, 27, last season. Whilst his goals tally is much inferior to Walcott’s (two PL, six total) his other key stats at both ends of the pitch continued to compare very favourably despite his comparative lack of Premier League time. He was the only English member of the British core to make the Gareth Southgate’s international squad at the end of the season. Unfortunately, having been shifted around positions and subbed in of 11 of his 16 Premier league starts, he is said to be far from convinced his future is best served by remaining at Arsenal – he has one year left on his contract and there appear to be no shortage of suitors, including key rivals.
Despite two successive starts and a few appearances as a left wing back, in a three at the back formation, Kieran Gibbs was left with a final tally of just eight League starts and three sub appearances. With the signing of Sead Kolosinac, he failed to even make the squad for the tour of Australia and China and appears to have joined fellow full-backs Debuchy and Jenkinson as well-remunerated non-playing members of the Club.
After just two Arsenal substitute appearances in August and dropping further down the pecking order, Jack Wilshere headed off to the Bournemouth beaches and south coast air. With his adopted club heading towards the relegation zone - he ended back on the bench for four successive matches before returning to the starting line up in April and then suffering yet another injury. He made 22 starts, didn’t score and managed just two assists. He has still started 25 Premier League matches in a season just once – six seasons ago. The once crown jewel of the British core has returned to training with Arsenal but his future is also uncertain.
Prior to Aaron Ramsey's much personally sought after Hollywood Cup Final winner, he finally scored a Premier League goal in injury time of the final match of the season (from 29 unblocked shots, of which 12 were on target). A far cry from 2013 -2014 season and last summer's Euros. His two May assists for Olivier Giroud doubled his tally to four. He made 13 starts and came on 10 times and accumulated just 1,229 minutes as yet another season was plagued by soft tissue injuries. Monsieur Wenger seemed to be losing faith in Ramsey too with Granit Xhaka, Francis Coquelin and Alex Iwobi significantly preferred. Ramsey seemed happier at the end of the season with three at the back and a midfield four, starting five of the last six matches. Nevertheless, it still seems highly questionable that Ramsey and Xhaka are - injuries and suspensions permitting - the solution to Monsieur Wenger’s long struggles to solve the ‘2’ problem, regardless of the formation. Certainly, the manner of the pre-season friendly defeat to Chelsea suggested otherwise.
In reality, Monsieur Wenger failed to develop their talent and none of the British core lived up to their promise and became the loyal and successful future of the Club. A struggling Wilshere preferred to head off to AFC Bournemouth last season, Ramsey previously expressed (a surely deluded) desire to play in La Liga and for Barcelona and Oxlade-Chamberlain now appears to have ambitions elsewhere too. Time will tell how long Walcott will accept being a very well paid squad player like Gibbs (presently a non-player).
The Team of Men
“I would say it’s the most mature squad I’ve had for a long time, because they are men… It’s the first time for a long time that I’ve had a team of what you can call men, ready to compete.”
Arsène Wenger, September 2016 on last season’s Team of Men
In the final year of his previous contract, after “continuity” and trusting his existing players failed again, Monsieur Wenger spent around £90m on three major signings: Granit Xhaka, Lucas Perez and - following Per Mertesacker’s pre-season injury - Skhodran Mustafi. They were expected to supplement star signings Ozil and Sanchez and then Cech, and turn Arsenal into Premier League title winners. The former struggled initially to get a chance and didn’t seem trusted by his manager. Remarkably, the defensive midfielder signing was subsequently advised by Monsieur Wenger not to tackle and even suggested as a box-to-box player, a position he seems short of the requisite pace and athleticism for. Nevertheless, despite ongoing disciplinary issues, he became a regular and eventually made 28 Premier League starts. Lucas Perez never appeared trusted and seemed to follow Joel Campbell’s treatment the previous season in that regardless of their performances and commitment seemed always lagging behind Theo Walcott in Monsieur Wenger’s affections. When offered his rare chances, he delivered goals and assists, pressed hard, and tracked back diligently – but he was given just two Premier League starts and made just nine substitute appearances. He has lost the number 9 shirt to Lacazette and seems likely to leave. Mustafi made 26 starts and after his immediate success, not least in marshalling Costa in the league win over Chelsea, suffered from minor injuries and loss of form as the season totally unravelled.
